Shorten: Australia has been deceived
2:59

By God Joe Hockey is fired up. And by God he made a point of expressing it.

The Treasurer fired back at Bill Shorten this morning by invoking the force of a higher power.

“It (the Budget) hasn’t been just about improving the numbers, but by God we had to do it, we are reducing debt,” the Treasurer told Liberal heavy hitters at a post-Budget breakfast in Melbourne this morning.

God got a mention at least four times in Hockey’s passionate early morning speech.

At least twice the Treasurer pressed that the Budget was designed with future generations in mind.

“I am not going to pass the buck to a future generation, Tony Abbott is not going to pass the buck to another prime minister and we are not going to pass the buck to another government,” the Treasurer said in closing his address at Crown.

In a combative speech yesterday, Bill Shorten described the Abbott government’s Budget as one “of broken promises built on lies’’ and vowed to vote against some of its key planks.

He baited Mr Abbott over his threat, saying if he wanted an election “try us”.

He accused the Government of “deceiving’’ the public and setting out to create an underclass.

He said the move by Mr Hockey to slash $80 billion in schools and hospitals funding was a “Trojan horse’’ to smooth the way for a bigger GST.

“(This is) a Budget drawn up by people who have never lived from pay cheque to pay cheque,’’ he told Parliament.

Mr Shorten outlined Labor’s position on a number of the measures in the Budget.

The ALP will vote against the cuts to higher education, the introduction of the $7 fee to visit a bulk-billing GP and the plan to make unemployed young people wait six months for Newstart.

He said the Opposition would also vote against the $80 billion cuts to the states - a move that will, ironically, cheer the mostly Liberal state premiers and chief ministers.

He has previously said Labor would oppose the rise to the petrol excise tax.

The Australian Greens and Palmer United Party are also against a variation of the Abbott Government’s measures.

Liberal frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull today said the Federal Government has “options” if Labor and the minor parties block key Budget measures in the Senate.

“If they seek to frustrate us doing the job the Australian people just elected us to do then there are all sorts of options - negotiation, see if common ground can be found, is one ... and the other alternative is a double dissolution,” Mr Turnbull told the Nine Network today.

“But I don’t think we need to get ahead of ourselves here, we’ve just had an election.

“We have a new government with a very clear mandate to get the budget back into shape.”

Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer Steve Ciobo played down Labor’s dare, saying the Government was elected for its stability and maturity.

“We have absolutely no desire to play silly political games with the Labor Party,” he told ABC radio.

Mr Shorten made no mention of the new debit tax, a 2 per cent, three-year levy on those earning over $180,000, leaving open the possibility Labor would support it.

Mr Shorten also made no specific commitments on the cuts to welfare but News Corp Australia understands he will not support the move to end Family Tax Benefit B payments when a child turns six.

Mr Shorten did not outline any policies of his own. But he defended Labor’s financial legacy, saying they had left behind low inflation, low interest rates, a triple-A credit rating and superannuation savings larger than the size of the entire Australian economy.

Mr Hockey defended the $7 payment to visit a bulk-billing doctor as cheaper than a couple of beers and a few cigarettes.

“One packet of cigarettes costs $22. That gives you three visits to the doctor. You can spend just over $3 on a middy of beer, so that’s two middies of beer to go to the doctor,” Mr Hockey told the ABC.

Former prime minister John Howard joined the fray, broadly supporting the Budget but describing the Government’s new “temporary Budget repair levy’’ as a tax.

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